Variety People LA

Pull up your online chair, have a real beverage, be your variety self. Let's meetup online to talk, share, celebrate, listen, support each other, and network for new adventures and opportunities.

On the one hand, being a variety person can be amazing, fun, and enjoyable. We can share stories, experiences, successes, connections, opportunities.

On the other hand, being a variety person can be hard. You may be tugged in lots of directions, juggle diverse activities, jobs and people, and others may not "get" your diversity and complexity. We can support each other!

On the third hand (!), being a variety person may also involve knowing how. Let's share tips, techniques, resources, etc.

If you can, come ready with some of the following:

• Your Variety Backstory — Something about why you consider yourself a variety person, such as a little history, a story, or your feelings and thoughts.

• Pandemic and Your Variety — How being a variety person has made dealing with the pandemic easier and/or harder.

• Your Recommendations — Things that nourish your variety, online and/or offline.

• Your Questions — Things you'd like to ask other variety people.

• How You Might Help — Ways you might be available to help or connect with other variety people.

We'll use the Zoom meeting platform. The meeting link will be visible once you RSVP to this meetup. I'll update the link each month. Try to join the meeting five minutes or so early to make sure everything is working for you. The meeting link will be active and live about ten minutes early.

So, pull up your online chair, have a real beverage, be your variety self. See you soon!

—David Loughry

As each month gets closer, I'll start a poll for what to do and everyone can vote. You can also propose adventures. Vote at the link below. If you're on mobile in the Meetup app, you'll be taken to a web page and you'll need to zoom in. Here's the link where you can vote: https://www.meetup.com/Variety-People-Los-Angeles/polls/

For more info about each poll choice, I'll post links here, since space in the polls is limited. Also, the date and time may shift, based on the adventure.

I can organize any one of the choices, but co-organizers could do others if enough people are interested. Interested in organizing a meetup? Let me know.

So watch this space, or start a discussion below ahead of time if you have ideas for what to do!

Thanks!
David

I've started a collaborative Quip document (also available on mobile) for collecting ideas for meetups and planning them. RSVP for this event, and I'll send you details about how to join the document. On the date of the meetup, we'll have an online meeting using AnyMeeting. I'll do an orientation to the Quip document, and we can discuss ideas and planning for meetups.

ATTENDANCE NOT REQUIRED! To RSVP for this meetup, you only need to want to join our collaborative document. You DON'T need to be available to attend the online meetup on the date listed.

Here are some of the ideas so far. If some meetup ideas are popular, we can repeat those events if others want to attend, or attend again! For a few of these ideas, I've written descriptions of the meetup, which you'll find under our group Pages tab (you'll only see the Pages tab when viewing the desktop version of the Meetup site). RSVP so you can join the document and conversation, to let us know your ideas!

• Monthly mixer. We could mix, talk, network, share variety experiences and tips, and consider options, including exploring experience swaps, developing interest lists, discussing possible meetups, and updating a shared mobile document for ongoing collaboration on meetup ideas and planning.

• LA County Museum of Art‎ (LACMA) - area exploration and mixer.

• Amateur night for performances.

• Volunteer to do something as a group.

• Variety people networking and support group.

• Job trading or sharing.

• Potluck, perform and pickup.

• Start some sustainable proximities (which help create sustainable variety) using the Shared Situation Guide (https://sharedsituations.wordpress.com/), which others can then join too.

• Dance party, with a variety of kinds of dance.

• Art swap.

• Make group art, photograph it, destroy it.

• Variety workout — some of each: yoga, dance, run, weights, others?

• Variety people speed dating.

• Events that involve some work, some collaboration, and some play.

• Fashion show - attendees are in it, and watch it!

• Attend open mic event, and maybe participate!

• Beach stroll, chat, picnic and resource sharing.

• Online meeting to discuss meetup ideas.

• Mashups of any of the above ideas.

Again, just RSVP for this event, and I'll send you details about how to join the collaborative and mobile Quip document. On the date of the meetup, we'll have an online meeting using AnyMeeting. I'll do an orientation to the Quip document, and we can discuss ideas and planning for meetups. As mentioned, you don't need to be able to attend the online meeting, you only need to want to join our collaborative document.

"SustaVariety" is short for sustainable variety. It’s variety that continues, refreshes, renews. It can make life more energizing and enjoyable. It can help people and places be more alive. The word "collabs" is short for collaborations, which could be among ourselves as a group, as well as with our friends, family, associates, neighbors, fellow citizens, etc. Let's make ourselves and Los Angeles better and more alive with SustaVariety collabs!

Los Angeles already has sustainable variety in many ways. But there is more we can do, and new things to try. Plus, our approaches should scale beyond Los Angeles, so we may influence the wider world and the future. SustaVariety can be enhanced with proximity thinking approaches (more on this below), as well as other approaches we use and/or create. This is a joint meetup with Proximity Thinkers LA (https://www.meetup.com/ProxThinkersLA).

At the meetup, we’ll start with a quick intro to SustaVariety, as well as an intro to a shared situations approach to collaborating that enhances SustaVariety. (This shared situations approach is based on the proximity thinking framework.) Then we can develop and update lists of shared situations to potentially collaborate on together as a group, as well as possibly with our friends, family, associates, neighbors, fellow citizens, etc. Next, we can choose a few shared situations and start or continue collaborating, using the shared situations approach and/or other approaches as appropriate. We'll sometimes use collaboration apps, documents and websites, and if you want to access them for editing and/or commenting, you'll need Google and Facebook accounts.

Whether you attend or not, you can get involved, in small to big ways, with or without money. You can learn more about SustaVariety, and more ways to get involved, at: https://loughry.com

Suggested Proxri
Let's try no fixed prices for this meetup and our collaborative activities. Let's use ProxRewards, also called "proxri," which are part of proximity thinking and are not limited to money (see https://proxri.org). We can proxri people related to benefits we gain from them now or in the future as a result of this meetup and group, and/or related to our interactions with them in this meetup and group. For the organizer (David Loughry), the suggested minimum money proxri per meetup is at least $2 via https://loughry.com/proxri or via being a patron (getting you additional benefits) at: https://www.patreon.com/loughry

Suggested Online Course
As mentioned, SustaVariety can be enhanced with proximity thinking approaches, one of which is the shared situations approach to collaborating. To quickly start proximity thinking, and so we have some common language, take the online course "Let’s Be More Alive — Intro to ProxThink." It has a reasonable minimum proxri, and there is also a trials option for you to check it out. Learn more and sign up at: https://proxthink.thinkific.com

How We'll Meet Online
We'll use the Jitsi Meet online platform (https://meet.jit.si), which also has apps if you prefer to join via mobile or tablet. Jitsi Meet is recommended by Meetup! The meeting link will be visible once you RSVP to this meetup. If you're joining via computer, you do NOT need a special app, as Jitsi Meet works in your browser without even signing up for an account. The fully-supported browsers are Google Chrome and Chromium (+ Edge Chromium). On mobile, the Jitsi Meet app should open when you click our custom meeting link. Try to join the meeting five minutes or so early to make sure everything is working for you. The meeting link will be active and live about ten minutes early.

This meetup and these collaborative activities use the ProxThink Terms of Use (https://proxthink.com/members/about/terms-of-use.php), which boring as it is, may be the friendliest terms you've seen. Why? It's a better fit for our connected world.

I hope you'll join us!

—David Loughry